Quotes from Lewis Hyde

The more we allow such commodity art to define and control our gifts, the less gifted we will become, as individuals and as a society. The

We may not have the power to profess our gifts as the artist does, and yet we come to recognize, and in a sense to receive, the endowments of our being through the agency of his creation.

A market exchange has an equilibrium or stasis: you pay to balance the scale. But when you give a gift there is momentum, and the weight shifts from body to body.

All that we make and do is shaped by the communities and traditions that contain us, not to mention by money, power, politics, and luck. And even should the artist or scientist think she as extracted herself from the world to stand alone in the studio, a tremendous array of faculties and mind-states may well attend her creativity.

A man may wonder what will come in return for his gift, but he is not supposed to bring it up. Gift exchange is not a form of barter. 'The

When we are moved by art we are grateful that the artist lived, grateful that he labored in the service of his gifts.